Recording capabilities of in-home devices such as a digital video recorder (DVR) have resulted in the storage of entire programs which are typically thirty minute or sixty minute segments, but some recorded programming may be several hours in length (e.g., movies, live events, sporting events, etc.). Current DVR interfaces require that the entirety of a program be recorded and stored at the DVR device. Thus, DVR storage capacity may quickly become scarce when several full-length pieces of content are recorded, and a user may be prevented from recording other programs of interest.
In some instances, a user might only be interested in one or more segments of a program (e.g., highlights, favorite scenes, etc.), and the user might desire that these one or more segments be permanently, or for at least an extended period of time, saved at a DVR device. The one or more segments may be only a fraction of the total length of the associated program. Moreover, using current DVR interfaces, playback of desired content segments is hampered as it requires searching through the rest of the piece of content using trickplay functions (e.g., fast-forward, rewind, skip, etc.) to get to the right location within the content.
With currently deployed DVR and set-top box (STB) technology, in order for a user to record a short video segment, the consumer typically has to be next to the DVR device or STB during a live transmission (or retransmission, if offered) and needs to press ‘Record’ and ‘Stop’ buttons located on the DVR device or STB precisely at the targeted start and stop points of the desired video segment. Besides the issue of requiring the user to be present to manually perform the recording, the user is further expected to have prior knowledge that an upcoming segment of the live content is going to be a segment that the user will want saved as an individual segment, which is problematic during a first viewing of the content.
Currently, customer premise equipment (CPE) devices do not offer a user the option to record specific types of scenes within a piece of content (e.g., television show, movie, etc.). For example, a user might be interested in only the action scenes of a piece of content. Currently, during consumption of recorded content, a user is unable to playback or reposition the content to only the scene types of interest. For example, in order to view scenes of interest, the user may have to start the playback of a recorded piece of content and perform trick play or repositioning to reach the scenes of interest. Further, the user cannot search a piece of content from a media library based on a type of scene of interest. Moreover, a user does not have the option to search through scenes of the content or to categorize content portions based on scene type. Therefore, a need exists for methods and systems operable to provide a user with insight into the scene-type makeup of a piece of content.
Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements.